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In my previous post, I mentioned that in addition to entering screenplay competitions, I was going to start attending film festivals, with the goal to start networking. I felt it was a sound plan. I was starting to get results, having both screenplays I had written and entered into contests having placed as a finalist. Now it was about getting the word out about this success.

Unfortunately, there was one problem. And it was kind of a big one.

For the first time in fifteen years, the Writer’s Guild of America had just gone on strike.

While this didn’t bar me from attending the film festivals, it would be career suicide to attempt to network at them. If I did, and it was discovered that I had been working behind the scenes, while writers were holding the line to negotiate better opportunities for everyone, I would be blacklisted by every studio who knew that a deal with me would mean that no other writer in the WGA would work with them.

And this happened right after I bought tickets to attend my first film festival. And with the second I had planned to attend, Tribeca, happening the following weekend.

My plans were coming off the rails before they even began.

I had now entered my script for Dig Down in another round of screenwriting contests, bringing my total entries to six. I felt like I was following the advice and gameplan of many writers before me, to just continually pitch, query and submit their work to as many people and organizations as possible, never being dismayed by any disappointing results, always maintaining the mindset that each submission would get me one step closer toward reaching my goal.

I also felt that just submitting my script into screenplay contests wasn’t enough.

When I was entering screenwriting contests, I had to fill out personal information as part of my submissions, which landed me on several mailing lists. These e-mails focused on providing services for screenwriters, mostly in the form of paid courses. While I wasn’t particularly interested in these paid courses, I was interested in the free seminars they usually held to try and hook potential customers.

One of these free seminars focused on what screenwriters should do to get their work noticed. During the seminar, they mentioned that entering screenplay competitions was a good method, as the writer could use the accolades they received from any contests they had success in.

They also said that film festivals were a great place to network.

This felt like an excellent next step to take in my screenwriting journey. I could continue entering Dig Down into competitions for the rest of the year. But my name would just be text on the cover page of the script. No one would still know who I was.

I changed my focus immediately – from looking for screenplay competitions to enter, to film festivals to attend.

As I was finding more screenplay competitions to enter in search of my first win, I did make one decision that I regret. While I definitely feel I made a mistake with the way I entered into the Scriptapalooza Contest, that was more so in the gaffe I made with my submission, but I did ultimately submit for the services that I wanted to.

The regret I had was with my submission to the Chicago Script Awards.

This is not to say that there was anything wrong with the contest itself. It, like the earlier contests I had entered, offered multiple options for submissions, and while there was nothing inherently wrong with any of them, I do feel what I submitted for wasn’t right.

Let me explain.

The Chicago Script Award had something akin to a general submission for full length features. I found this to be standard among the contests I was entering: there would be entries for full length features, shorts, TV shows, all different types of projects that really needed their own category to fairly judge all the submissions.

Chicago, however, offered a category that wasn’t necessarily offered by all other contests: First Time Screenwriter. Now, given the guidelines for submissions in this category, I should point out that I did qualify. It was for writers who hadn’t had any of their scripts made into a feature length movie already. I believe even if you had a script optioned you couldn’t qualify. So this wasn’t a situation where I explicitly entered a contest I shouldn’t have.

I can even explain my mindset on this entry. In horse racing, owners may have a horse that can compete at a certain level, but not necessarily came away with wins. For example, a horse might have the speed and talent to run a stakes race, but it will rarely get into the winner’s circle. What savvy owners will do when they see this is drop the horse down a level in competition, maybe into something called an allowance race. The winnings from the race won’t be as high, but the competition will be easier, which could lead to more wins.

My thought was that if Dig Down was good enough to place as a finalist against all other entries, I would have a real leg up against first time writers. But I also feel this went against the spirit of this particular category. While its true that I didn’t have a writing credit to my name when it came to scripts, my screenplay for Dig Down now had the extra level of editing and polish thanks to the feedback provided by industry professionals, something other entries were likely not to have. By the standards of the rules for entry it was a level playing field, but it also wasn’t.

More than that though, I also regret it because I felt for the first time in this process, I was selling my script short. I had entered the Page Turner Competition using the option to get feedback and a phone consultation, the most costly option they had, because I believed in my script. And I was proud of the results, placing as a finalist. Entering in the first-time writer category felt like it was betraying that belief, like I was conceding it wasn’t good enough to beat the field, but if I narrowed it to what was likely to be a lot of first-time entrants, even though my script wasn’t a first-time entrant, that I could score a cheap win.

Regardless of whether or not I get a win in any screenwriting contest, I won’t ever enter as a first-time screenwriter again.

I didn’t allow myself any time to dwell on my blunder in entering Scriptapalooza. I didn’t present myself in the most professional light, but after trying to salvage my mistake, I told myself there was nothing more I could do other than wait for the results, and the best thing to focus on was entering Dig Down into more competitions in search of that win.

I ended up entering Dig Down into two additional contests. The first was the Utah Film Festival just two days after I had entered Scriptapalooza. Like I said, I wasn’t wasting any time dwelling on my mistake, instead focusing on the hustle of getting into more contests.

Still not done, and not satisfied that I was getting Dig Down out there enough, I entered the Chicago Script Awards a little over two weeks later.

These entries, along with Scriptapalooza, would be reviewing my latest version of Dig Down, which took into account the extensive notes and suggestions that I had received during my phone consultation, and which had earned me a Finalist placement in the Page Turner Screenplay Competition, which even before the consultation, the judge had made clear was one of the better scripts they’d read for the competition.

I felt really good with how I was placing myself for future success.

I was kicking myself for having to email the Administrator for Scriptapalooza, explaining the possible mistake I had made because even when I called to clarify the entry options, I still hadn’t been sure when I had selected. My lack of understanding led to my having two entries into their contest, and requesting a refund, which just meant more work for them.

I was mortified that I was not putting myself in the best light in the industry.

To try and salvage this, when I emailed them explaining the situation, I made sure to state that I was fully responsible for the mistake. I didn’t blame them for my entering into the contest twice. Also, when I brought up the refund, I posed it as requesting if it was possible to get one. This was my mistake after all, and I feel most competitions make it clear that all entries are final. I first checked to make sure Scriptapalooza didn’t have such language, and then I still only asked if it was possible to get one.

I also made sure to include a screenshot that showed the double entries into their competition. I felt that if a refund option was available, this would be something they would request, and I wanted to have it available for them without asking. The situation was still a result of my mistake, but I was hoping that by doing these things, I might be able to salvage some part of the bad first impression I made in the hopes that with the actions I took after the blunder, they might see me as a professional who just had a bit of bad luck.

There was one last thing I did, in the hopes of tipping the scale somewhat in my favor.

In the screenshot I provided that showed I entered into their contest once, I made sure the screenshot also showed the results I had gotten for my script of Dig Down. As a reminder, at that time, I had placed twice as a finalist in the only two contests that had reached the results phase.

While the subject of my email to them was to ask for a refund for a duplicate entry that I had mistakenly made because I didn’t understand what service I had selected, I was going to make sure they saw that contests who did read my work thought very highly of it.

I had entered Dig Down into multiple screenplay competitions. I had placed as a finalist in the two that had ended, and had a strong sense I’d do well in the third. I was in the processing of submitting my revised draft to more competitions with the goal of getting wins.

This entering contests should’ve been second nature at this point.

Yet somehow, I always find a way.

When I was exploring options for how to enter Dig Down into the Scriptapalooza Screenplay Competition, I saw that they offered several different services, including notes and coverage. As I was interested in seeing if there was anything that could still be improved with my script, I ended up going with the general coverage they offered. This would give me a suggested logline (something I didn’t have), coverage (something I didn’t have), feedback (something I did have, but not on this draft), a scoring sheet on several categories, and an industry rating of Recommend or Pass on the script.

I had called up the competition to get clarification on the options they were providing, and the information I received was what made me select the general coverage package. Everything should have been fine.

Except after my submission, when I re-read the services provided, I didn’t see anything that said this coverage would be included in this year’s submissions for the contest. And, because the deadline was fast approaching, I had gone with this option on a Friday…the final Friday before the contest’s deadline. On Monday.

This scenario allowed me the freedom to work myself up into a panic. I was potentially getting even more feedback on my script without getting a full understanding of how it would stack up against all the other spec scripts on the market. This was only exacerbated when I tried to call Scriptapalooza again to get clarification on whether or not I had actually entered the contest. Again, this was a Friday. And even though I’m on the east coast, and they operate on the west coast…it’s a Friday.

In typical me fashion, I did the only thing that made sense. I entered the competition again, with just a regular entry, no notes provided, because all the options with notes and feedback didn’t expressly say this would be considered an entry.

This allowed me to breathe a little easier. I now knew I was entered into the contest. Now the only thing left to do was see if I could remove my multiple entries, if I had in fact entered Dig Down more than once. I emailed the competition to explain the situation to them – keep in mind this is all still on Friday – to ask for clarification, and if I had entered twice, if I could have the general entry removed.

To sum up, I had left a voicemail asking a question after already calling them up with questions yesterday, entered my script into their competition twice, and then sent an email asking if they could not only fix my error by refund me a potential duplicate entry. My goal with these contests was to get a sense of where my script stood in the marketplace, and to present myself well to professionals.

I knew I was tanking this second goal.

Thankfully on Monday, I got a reply to my email that the coverage option I had initially gone with was considered a submission to the contest, and that they would refund me the second entry. But in hindsight, I should have just gone with the coverage option. I had already placed as a finalist twice, and even though I was looking for contests to enter and win, it wouldn’t have been so bad if I had just gotten the feedback on this and not presented myself in a bad light.